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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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IRELAND AND AMERICA, 



VERSUS 



ENGLAND, 



FROM A 



FENIAN POINT OF VIEW 



A LECTURE 



< < \ ^* » — ►■ 



DELIVERED BY 



BRIG. GEN. J. L. KIERNAN, U. S. A 



IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE WEST, 



DETROIT: 

GEORGE W. PATTISON, PRINTER. 
1864. 



•4 



V-' A 9, 






J^f 



PREFACE. 



The following lecture was delivered by Brig. Gen. J. L. Kiernan, 
U, S. A., under the auspices of the Fenian Brotherhood, in 
the principal cities and towns of the West. 

It is published in pamphlet form at the request of the various 
Fenian Circles of the Western States. 

It has been much commented on and praised by the Western 
papers — amongst others by the Missouri Repuhlican, tho Missouri 
Democrat, the Cincinnati Gazette, The Catholic Telegraph, (Cincin- 
nati) The Indianajyolis Daily Journal, the Daily State Sentinel, 
(Indianapolis) the Illinois Journal, (Springfield) ihe Illinois State 
Register, (Springfield) the Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Tribune, 
and The Detroit Free Press. 

It is trusted that its issue in pamphlat form will assist in reaching 
the good result aimed at by the lecturer, namely — the public demon- 
stration of what Fenianism really is, and its advancement. 

The proceeds of the lectures have been devoted in St Louis, Cin- 
cinnati, Indianapolis, Springfield III, Lafayette Ind., Detroit, Sag- 
inaw, Mich., and other places to some Patriotic or Charitable object. 
Gen. Kiernan declining to receive recompense in any form whatever. 

As large audiences greeted the General everywhere he lectured and 
much enthusiasm was displayed; also as many thousands of the lec- 
ture are now being issued in pamphlet form and as the Press of 
the West has extensively and favorably noticed his lecturing it may be 
presumed that Fenianism will be widely known and thoroughly ap- 
preciated in the Western States. 



3^-f 



LECTURE, 



BY BRIG. GEN. J. L. KIERNAN, U. S. A. 



IREIiAND AjVD AMERICA, versus ENGIjAIVD, 

FROM A FENIAN POINT OF VIEW- 



Fellow Fenians, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Stretching our mental vision back through the trials and sorrows 
which for many centuries have been the lot of oppressed Ireland, 
we behold her independent, happy and prosperous, the home of 
learning and' of piety at a period when the rest of Northern Eu- 
rope, particularly Brit lin, was buried in a state of gross barbarity, 
groaning under feudal tyranny and torn by the dissensions of 
contending factions. 

One of the malignantly ingenuous plans of our enemy, England, 
in order to cast into oblivion, wipe out, cancel the nationality of 
Ireland, has been lo destroy the evidences of her former greatness, 
but it has, ihank heaven, been a useless task, — the Irish are a re- 
tentive people, neither fire, nor sword, nor famine, nor proselytism 
can make them forget what they were, and while they remember the 
cruelties, the fearful catalogue of wrongs inflicted by their oppres- 
sor, they also remember the days of glory beyond. 

How could they forget either ? The evidences of both are ever 
around them, — from that ruined shrine once went up the pean of 
praise; the Sassenah came, and lo ! the smoke from the smouldering 
and desecrated pile and the dying sighs of the murdered worship- 
pers went up towards Heaven together; through the halls of that 
princely court once swept the greatness, the talent and the beauty of 
a free nation, but the Saxon bliirht fell upon it and now it is the 
home of the ,owl and bat, deserted aud desolate, clad in the ivy 
winding sheet of its own decay; that frowning fortress was once the 



6 

scene of a terrible struggle, it was the struggle of right against 
might, but alas! in vain, and now the gleaming bayonets on its 
parapets tells you that the hirelings of the foe are there; the fireside tale 
told with a shudder of sorae fearful detd of treachery, wholesale 
massacre and outrage by the ruthiees invader; the tradition of bettar 
days long past, the facts almost lost in the poetic play of fancy; the 
authentic records which our tyrants could not succeed in destroying; 
the poet's song ; the ruined marts of trade ; the tracts of land once spi inkled 
with clusters of hamlets, now used as pasturage for cattle destined for 
the English markets; the laws which made learning in aa Irishman 
a crime, the practice of his religion a felony; the mounds beneath 
which lie mouldering rows of the famine stricken, starved to death by 
English legislation; the soup shop; the tract reader; the tithe proc- 
tor; all these surround the Irishman in his own country, and when, 
cast out from house and home, he seeks a refuge to some foreign 
land the fearful array holds a large place in his memory. 

Our fellow American citizens native to the soil are apt, although 
ever willing to act a noble and generous part towards Irishmen, to 
view effects, and not causes; when they see a ''Mick" or a "Pat" ig- 
norai.t or otherwise degraded they rail cr sneer at him and not at 
the tyranny which with diabolical ingenuity made him thus; if they 
take up a history of Ireland and read how eight centuries ago one 
Englishmen holding a prominent position gave, by a most ridiculous 
assumption, another Englishman also in a conspicuous place "the King 
dom of Ireland" as a make-peace for a foul-murder; how the Eng- 
lishman Plantagenet accepting the gift and taking advantage of internal 
dissensions invaded Ireland, and of course espousing the cause of a 
ravisher and rebel, thus introducing English rule and the motto " divide 
et empera'* for the first time succeeded in partial conquest; how based 
on the original assumption the English subsequently made a foot-hold 
called the "Pale" the incursions from which into the other parts of 
Irelard were ever marked with treachery, rapine and blood-shed; 
If they but read of the excesses of the minion Essex in the days of 
the Virgin ( ?) Queen; of the enormities of Cromwell and his crop eared 
host of psalm singers when sparing neither age nor sex, they spread 
a swathe of desolation through the land ; of how the Irish had to 
sufier for the quairel between the imbecile James and liis unprincipled 
Son-in-law William; If they note what the infamous code called the 
penal lawswere; read the history of the perjuries and horrible cruel- 
ties, England perpetrated from 1782 to 1798; of the foul manner she 
efl^ected,tbe so called "Union" in 1800; If they take into consideration 
the laws against trade, the laws against education, the periodical syste- 
matic starvations, and the proselytism system; if they contemplate that 
the whole resources of the nation are drained away by absentee land- 
lords to swell the coff"ers of England, they will no longer wonder that 
*'Pat" is ignorant or degraded but will marvel that his elasticity of 
spirit and unquenchable love of nationality have survived so well the 



^6-r/ 



long continued and diabolical persecution under which he has been 
placed. 

I am aware that while persecuting and robbing Ireland, the British 
Government has managed by means of a lying literature to misrepre- 
sent her and the Irish. The astute though unprincipled states- 
me n who guide the helm of British powder know well the influence 
of the pen for good or evil and most unsparingly and unscrupu- 
lously do they use it. They have in their pay a host of talented 
but venal writers who are ready to fabricate, exagerate or pervert as 
they are directed. Foremost in this infamous phalanx is that bully, 
cynic, hypocrite and liar the London Times. I remember looking over 
a file of that paper printed during the career of Napoleon the^Great 
and it was amusing to see what an atrocious wrelch it made him; no 
conceivable crime but what was committed by him, no blasphemy, tur- 
pitude, lust or cruelty but what was his daily habit and it was really 
wonderful to behold the seemingly apparent truth and substantiation 
■with which those base fabrications were told. The same inventive 
power was displayed during the Crimean campaign relative to Nicho- 
las of Russia, and when during the Sepoy War in Hindostan, the ter- 
rific attrocities of the English, such as blowing men from the ihouths 
of cannons, was covered by the creation of a Nenah Sahib and the 
harrowing invention of a Caunpore massacre; nor has this scientific 
system of literary fabrication, this pen fight been at all omitted in 
relation to the United States is the present great struggle, — you have 
but to cover over the ''Times'' since '61 and you will perceive that the 
same paper, which for thirty-five years previous had so great a horror 
of all pertaining to slavery, suddenly can see no merit whatever but 
*'au contraire'' every shortcoming, imbecility and vice in those who 
are practically trying to extinguish it in the United States. 

Having given a cursory sketch of England's 'philanirophy in Ire- 
land, it may be well to glance historically at her beaevolencs towards 
this, the beloved land of our adoption. A couple of centuries ago 
she was planting colonies in the West Indies and along the Atlantic 
coast of our continent; she was also extensively carrying on the slave 
trade. The colonies and the trade were both, of course, to redound 
to her benefit and put money in her purse. But the slave trade was 
carried on WMth such atrotious cruelty that other nations of Europe, 
for the sake of our common humanity, murmured and to silence such 
murmurings the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain passed an Act 
that, "The black man was not a son of Adam nor redeemed by Christ 
and consequently not entitled to human sympathy." This horrible 
blasphemy met at that time with a rebuke from the Pope, who issued 
a bull excommunicating any Catholic who dared reiterate so inhuman 
an edict. 

But time passed on, the colonies rebelled, they declared their indepen- 
dence, won it at the swords point, formed a free Republic and 
England soon perceived that the interests which heretofore reverted 



8 

to her were now diverted into another channel: nay as years rolled 
bv she saw that the new nation with its youthful energy, its immense 
internal resources, its extended line of sea- coast, its increasing maritime, 
power, its hardy martial spirit, would inevitably in time overshadow her 
and after wresting the sceptre of the seas from her grasp, gradually 
reduce her to a cypher if she did not exert herself to destroy its power. 
She remembered the success of her "divide and rule" maxim in Ire- 
land as told in its unhappy annuls, of its vital importance in India as 
recounted in the history of Hastings and Clive, and she resolved to ap- 
ply it here. Very soon it became known that the national conscience 
was becoming sore on the question of slavery, much as that of Henry 
the Eighth was when after being married to his brothers widow in quiet 
conscience nineteen years, he saw Anna Boleyn; philanthrophists were 
got up on all sides, the literary corps before alluded to were put to 
work, the popular clamor excited and at length the time having arrived 
for a grand tableaux of hypocrisy and humbug, the British Govern- 
ment graciously aboli.^hed slavery in the West Indies and granted 
twenty millions sterling to recompence the planters. Here we have 
two witnesses as to her motives, one — Wilberforce — the dupe, who 
proclaimes it philantrophy, the other, Sir Robert Peel the astute states- 
man who declares in the British Parliament that "twenty millions 
sterling is cheaply lost on the altar of American disunion." Which 
of those two witnesses will you have? As for me I candidly think 
that Peel expressed her motives. 

The work designed was however not efiected, the foundation was 
only laid in the liberation of the slaves, the superstructure was to be 
built; no time was to be lost, as America was advancing with rapid 
strides; Exeter Hall and a host of other abolition societies sprang into 
existence; American slavery was the jjeculiar, sole slavery seen, that 
of the Spanish Colonies and that of the natives in the British possessions 
in India were ignored; abolition emissaries were sent to our Northern 
and fire-eating emissaries to our Southern States and industriously and 
assiduously has she for many years worked by every insidious and foul 
means to fan our flame of discord. At length in '61 her exertions 
fructified, the war cry rang through the land; the South grasping to its 
bosom the hidious incubus begotten of her and blinded to its fealty and 
honor by the debasing influence, rebelled, and the West and North, for 
the sake of that glorious Union she had long machinated to destroy, 
sprang to arms to punish the erring South and bring it back to its 
allegiance. 

England had, however gained the second tableaux of her 2)hilantro- 
phy^ we were at civil war, she now changed her course, she took the 
weaker and wrong side so as to equalize the struggle and prolong it to 
our mutual destruction ; otherwise the South being soon coerced and 
slavery, the source of discord, removed all her benevolent labor for 
years would have proved a failure and her phUantrhophic disburse- 
ment oftwenty millions sterling a dead loss. 



Js-/ 



We have seen that she commenced her rule in Ireland by espousing 
the seducer and rebel; the subsequent history of that country evidences 
that the purposely fostered haired, spread discord, fomented distur- 
bances by lier emissaries, so as to keep the country divided, torn into 
factions and weak. 

Her policy in Hindostan is another patent case; there from her first 
Colony her rule of action may be summed up thus: — 

One native Rajah quarrels with another, the British Governor, the 
enemy of so unchristian a proceeding becomes the umpire, soon it is 
discovered th-^t the Prince in the wrong is in Britisu judgment right, 
of course justice the Englishman prerogative, the British Constitution, 
the British lion, etc., take the side of the iajured potentate, a struggle 
ensues, h's opponent goes down, but the territory of his opponent is 
siezed and appropriated to the tune of Rule Brittania and his own 
to pay the costs to that of Perjide Albion. 

Is it strange then that from the success she had met from the prac- 
tice of her celebrated maxim in Ireland and India she should hesitate 
to try it in the United States ? 

What does England care for any principle the South may fight for or 
for any for which the loyal States may contend ? She cares for neither, 
her abolitionism is proved a hypocrisy and a lie, her subsequent sym- 
pathy with the South, even tie practical sympathy wliich has sent 
them vessels of war, arms, clothing and provisions was but actuated 
by a hatred of both sections, and avarice, wa^but designed to lengthen 
our struggle, was but displayed to the South as an ignis fatuus. 

Who is the enemy which has pursued such a course towards Ire- 
land, India and the United States? The English people? By no 
means. There is not under heaven a more oppressed, emasculated or 
gulled class than the people of England. The Government of Eng- 
land, that Power which has so well earned the \\i\QO^ Perfide Albion, that 
to which Ireland owes her wrongs, to which the horrors in India are due, 
Avhich has fomented dissensions here, is a net work cf hereditary Aris- 
tocracy, who, banded together by common interests, use the machinery 
of a cypher monarch, a hireling literature, hireling statesmen, and a 
hirelini^- soldiery for the suppression of libertv every where. This 
web of tyrranny spreads itself over the entire United Kingdom, and 
absorbes all the honors, all the piivileges, all the emoluments, by- 
right of birth from generation to ,generation. 

'Twas this many headed lyr nt which so perseveringly machinated 
to destroy the great Napoleoq under the well concocted plea that he 
and not it was the foe of liberty. 'Twas this ^^ noble band^' that saw 
the hand writing of its destruction written in the advancea^.ent of Dem- 
ocratic Institutions here and for many years has worked for our 
destruction; it was this "primogenature and entail" combination which 
by its emissaries placed the glittering bait of a similar aristocracy 
before the eyes of the Southern lealers and by setting them dreaming 
of feudal greatness lured them on to treason and all the horrors of a 



10 

civil war; 'twas this Institution which while it beguiled the South to 
her deslructioD, having only one true feeling in the matter, which was 
that the South if by any chance should succeed, she would establish an 
ari&locracy like itself, that sent its emissaries to the North to excite the 
fanaticism of the opposite party; it is this "pntrician" caucus which 
made the balls that Fiance is firing in Mexico. Its foit is hypocrisy; 
that hypocrisy which seew the mote in its neighbors eye, not the 
beam in its own ; that hypocrisy which"by its false literature tries to make 
the world believe that the people of Britain are free, nay attemps to 
make that most taxed, oppressed, robbed people themselves think that 
they have a ** Glorious Constitution " (fee; that hypocrisy which man- 
ages to keep the eyes of the world directed towards some lesser 
evil elsewhere, while it perpetrates some new oppression at home, or 
some fresh atrocity in Iieland, India, China or elsewhere ;'ihat hypoc- 
risy which to carry out its plan of deceit, humbug and at the same 
time gratify ils religious spite, indulges in au occasional claptrap, such 
as a fulsome reception of so r,e patriot. A patriot amongst the British 
Aristocracy! Shades of Eir.met and of Washington what a strange 
anomaly such a sight must be! Finally it is this hypocrisy which 
pretends to be the friend of liberty in countries where it looses 
nothing by it, while it is the ruthless foe of such liberty in all places 
where it has an interest. 

Opposed to the underminding, destructive policy of this enemy here, 
Americans have but one barrier — inUnion. — In perseveringlyyip'/^^m^' 
with all their might and strength for the maintenance of their nation 
and their government as the representative of that nation. What is that 
nation ? Who compose that government ? The nation is composed of 
people from every clime under Heaven. Many Americans by birth, 
many sons of Ireland, many who first opened their eyes by the undu- 
lations of the Rhine, many from the sunny plains of France, many 
from the land of the olive and the vine, from the dreamy banks 
of the Guadelquiver many who first saw the bright sunlight of 
of classic Italy andmany from the ice bound and snow clad hills of 
the land of Thor and of Odin, but all are the American people, the 
American nation. The government is the emenation of their will, 
their voice, their echo — nothing more. 

Gathered together from all points of the compass, speaking various 
languages, accustomed to different modes of living, what causes this 
Babel to harmonize, to unite, to be a nation? It is that disinterested, 
noble legacy of wisdom called our Constitution and which founded on 
Christianity in its true sense regards all mankind as brothers and that 
common desire for "life, liberty and the puisuit of happiness" which 
is an equal instinct in all humanity. 

But of all nations whose trodden down seek a refuge in this the 
common land of the oppressed none should be more tenatious of its 
liberties, its preservation, its nationality, its intirety, than the Irish 
Americans. They have been the longest and the most diabolically 



11 

oppressed of all nations of which history has a record, they know by 
bitter experience more than any other people what a fearful curse 
dissension and disunion is, and therefjre more than any other people 
should they throw all their influence, give all their power for the pres- 
ervation of oar Union. I am aware that circumstances threw ray 
fellow Irish-Americans in limes past into party cliques, whose leaders 
would, for their own gain, hold them now. But those were peace 
times; they are past. The life of the nation is at stake; that nation 
which springing from tae oppressed who won freedom at the swords 
point, and acting by their own experience have otiered freedom to all 
that come to ihem, is to pass away, unless those who have received 
that freedom will spring to its delivery. And what will the preser- 
vation of that nation i'ring forth from the fearful convulsion throuo-h 
which it is passing? Not alone shall we receive restored liberties, 
restored prosperity, but advancing from its Arcadian simplicity, our 
Republic shall enter on its iron epoch, and presenting a serriad wall of 
gleaming steel to the "divine right " theories of Europe, shall demand 
not only the recognition of the "divine right" of man to liberty in 
our nation, but shall dictate it in despotic countries. Let us have 
union of all sections and of all parties on tha basis of our Constitu- 
tion, and the confines of the United States, as we now assert it, vast as 
are its proportions, will not limit us; we shall pass the Rubicon of the 
Canadian border, and stretching away notthward, the advancing rays 
of our liberty shall mingle with the light of the northern morning ia 
the prismatic hues of civilization; the sluggish solitudes of the tropi- 
cal Lagunes shall awake to the voice of industry; the Gulf shall be our 
inland lake, the northern Pacific s!)all wash our w^estern shores, and 
the Central Amerecan railroad mark our southern border. 

Nor shall this position, great as it will be, content us; all history 
has shown us that Republics are progressive, absorbent. We shall 
place our sentinels of freedom, under the starry flag, along the line of 
Western Europe, and repudiating all rights save the commou rights of 
humiiiity, the people siiall say — amen; but of all the nations that 
shall welcome us, none shall give us a more active co-operation in our 
efibrts for their liberty none such a'^caitk meallagk failthe,^^ as the down 
trodden sons and daughters of Erin when ojr magic touch has awak- 
ened them to the morning of liberty jifter their long night of bondage. 

We — the United S'.ates — now stand alone, battling against treason 
at home, that treason the result of longings after the same aristocracy 
that was our tyrant and oppressor in the old land, and a host of despots 
abroad; yet by union of action we can fight and overcome them all, 
and can repay them all in due time. 

Of all the enemies that we have to contend with, England is the 
most insidious and malignant ; she has ever been so, is so and shall be 
so until vve crush the head of that serpent. France is advancing, in 
opposition to our republican doctrines, kingly power in Mexico, but 
she was our former friend and is acting now at least openly, we knDw 



12 

where to meet her ; the deluded people of the South , dragged into 
rebellion by their demagogues and incited to revolt by emissaries, at 
least fight bravely though in the wrong; but England wily, tortuous, 
malicious and cowardly, fearing to openly meet the nation in battle 
that twice beat her on land and sea, openly smiles in our face, while 
she secretly attempts to cut our throats, carries on a a dip'lomatic cor- 
respondence, while she sends forth ships of war, arms, clothing and 
provisions for the rebels, talks of strict neutiality while she is using 
every effort to sweep our commerce from the seas and tells us she is 
indeed sorry for our deplorable war, while she leaves no means untried 
to prolong it. 

Retributive justice demands when we shall have restored our Union, 
the warlike monster of a million armed men which by her machina- 
tions she has evoked here, shall be turned lo her destruction; '^delenda 
est Carthago''^ the old Roman exclamation over their insidious fallen 
foe must be repeated here. How shall we reach her ? Ah ! well she 
knows and well we know — Ireland — wronged, oppressed Ireland, sneer- 
ed at, scoffed at, robbed Ireland is the nightmare, the hideous plantom 
of her guilty thoughts, which makes her yet more, thanTear of us, fight 
us which the cowardly, base way she does. Ireland, the thorn in her 
side, whose exiled sons shall yet in the providence of a just God drive 
it to her foul heart. Through Iieland is how we Americans can reach 
her and repay her for all her falsehood, treachery and malignancy dur- 
ing the past three years — nay daring the past seventy-five years ; it is 
through Ireland and with Ireland that we Irish Americans can reach 
her and pay her back the long, long score we owe her, and it is through 
Ireland and with Ireland that Americans and Irish-Americans togeth- 
er shall teach her. 

When the work is done, and well done, when the " Pirate of all 
Nations " shall be forced to loosen her palsied grasp forever from the 
throat of our own dear old land, tLen the Fenian shall lay by the 
bword ; and, by the memory, of the past, by the graves of our fathers, 
Jby Sarsfiekl and Emmett, i.ever, never until then. 

I turn from the theme of our enemy — I rid myself of the mingled 
feelings of disgust, abhorence, hatred and thirst for revenge; I experi- 
ence in contemplating her to consider for a moment the debt of grati- 
tude we owe the United States : 

Amidst the scenes of childhood, surrounded by all the paraphernalia 
of English benevolence, such as starvat'on, nakedness, disease and ig- 
norance, Irishmen must remember the feelings of hope with which 
they turned from the fearful train and thought longingly of America. 
It was the Mecca of their dreams — the land of promise — the bright 
isle of fancy, painted on the fervid Celtic imagination amidst their 
stormy' sea of trouule, whose shores, if they could only reach, they 
would be happy. And good evidence had they on which to ground 
their hopes. The ships freighted with provisions from great hearte 
America when they were starving; the money enclosures from opulen 



Jrs 

13 

America when they were almost naked ; the word of cheer and en- 
couragement from buoyant America when they were faint and despair- 
ing, all were proofs, strong- as holy writ, that America was indeed a 
*' great country," The longings of many to get here were gratified. 
Were they disappointed? No. I say emphatically, that persons who 
entered into the industry of the country, and became amongst Ameri- 
cans as Americans were, found the United States all they anticipated, 
the great, free, opulent land their fjincy painted, and that Americans 
were ever leady and wilHng to help them along. 

I know that the bitterness of party has sometimes originated sec- 
tional feeling's, awd that such feelings directed against adopted citizens 
actuated a powerful party a few years ago, but how short lived it was, 
and how the American people themselves, led on by their greatest 
statesmen, nobly met and beat back the illiberal spirit until a party 
stoutly denying he had ever been a " know-nothmg," became a fre- 
quent occurrence. Thus it will be with all such parties, for America 
does not belong to any one race or creed. Some persons have most 
ridiculously called us Anglo-Sixons; this is a most absurd misnomer, 
originating from those who set history, common sense and facts at 
defiance; it is as largely Celtic and Teutonic as anything else, but 1 
reiterate, it is not of any one race or creo'l, but it is of all. 

This great Republic was founded on the principle of freedom and 
equality. It was designed as the bulwark of liberty, the rock of the 
rights of man, against which the waves of despotism would beat in 
vain, and nobly has it withstood all despotic eflforts until its Mephiles- 
topheles, England has threatened to sap its foundation. 

Let us suppose that the Union is dissolved, broken into frag- 
ments, where is there any longer refuge for the oppressed of all lands? 
Alas, no where! The gallant Pole, hunted like a wild beast by the 
savage Russian, can no longer hope for escape to a far off land of free- 
dom ; the brave Hungarian, pining in some Austrian dungeon, vsees,the 
last glimmer of freedom fade away, for even if he escapes he has but 
a choice of despots. The hardy German peasant remams at home, for 
he would then but exchange petty tyrannies, by emigration and on 
the liishman the blow would come heaviest and worst, his chains 
would be riveted faster than ever, and his great friend would exist no 
more, for the great, free America would have passed away. This 
nation once divided would divide again and again, and, torn l>y 
dissension, each petty kingdom governed by some military despot, 
would be too busy in attending to internal evils to attend aught else. 

It behooves iis, then, one and all to bury all party feelings, and go 
together for our Union. We must do it for the sake of our liberties 
here — for the sake of Ireland's freedom hereafter; for it is the only 
way under heaven by which both can be attained. 

No one has loved the ^outh better than I have. I have partaken 
of {Southern hospitality, and I have a warm recollection of how gener- 
ous and openbearted it was. Many of my best friends and most inti- 



14 

mate associations were there, but the cause of mankind is greater than 
all personal feelings, and, therefore, I figbt the South, not that I love 
it the less, but that I love the Union and cherish the hope of freedom 
to Irelaad the more. 

" This Nation must not be undone, 

Which God and Nature have made one. 

The star of empire here must rest, 

It cannot journey further west. 

The greatest nation, and the last, 

Is on a scale of grandeur cast ; 

And so d-esigned that it must be, 

The inheritor from sea to sea, 

To which no petty State can say, 

' Halt 1 till I give the right of way.' 

What though whole States be trod to dust, 

Survive and stand this Union must. 

What though a million heroes fall. 

The Union saved is worth them all; 

And glorious heritage will it be 

In having died for liberty." 
Yes, fellow Fenians, as our brother in sentiment, feeling and blood, 
Andrew Jackson, said : " By the Eternal the Union must and shall be 
preserved," and we with all other Americans shall do it; and by the 
Eternal, Ireland must and shall he free, and all other Americans with 
us shall do it. 

The allegation has been made that Irishmen are incapable of sell 
government; this allegation is one of the calumnies spread abroad by 
England and believed by many. When we see Irishmen in the coun- 
cils, leadina: the armies and moulding immense influence in some of 
the greatest nations of the world, even, when recreant to their own 
country, in that of England, it is certainly fair to infer that when con- 
centrating their talents at home, they cannot only govern themselves 
but give Ireland a glorious future. England asserts that Irishmen are 
incapable, because she does not wish to try the experiment. 

There are also many, even Irishmen, who are fainthearted and think 
that on account of the many abortive efforts Ireland has made for 
freedom she can never attain it. Let them remember the anecdote 
of the exiled Bruce and the spider, — six times did it swing itself on its 
filmy support and as many times failed to reach a point it aimed at, 
but the persevering insect tried again and reached it. The sight 
gave renewed courage to the desponding exile, he had repeatedly 
struggled for his kingdom, but failed. "I will also try again," said he, 
he did so and won the crown of Scotland. Our failures hitherto are 
attributable to our rash impetuosity, our dissensions and our foolish 
open-heartedness, allowing the enemies emissary to insinuate himself 
into our confidence so as to betray us. We must therefore avoid those 
evils; be cool and patient though determined: casting all past difi'er- 



15 

ences aside and burying the pait_v or religious strifes of by-gone days, 
we tnu>t all unite together cor iially, as Americans, loving our adopted 
country, as Irishmen loving our native land, faithfully filling the 
places assigned to us, obeying the orders of our superiors, and we must 
be very wary and cautious as to whom we confide in. More men 
and more causes are ruined by misplaced confidence than by any other 
cause whatever. 

It is said that the clergymen of the church lo which many of us 
belong are opposed to our organization and its object. I believe, nay 
I know, that tho33 clergymen are as good Irish- Americans as live: that 
they equally love the Union and the freedom of Ireland, and that not 
only have they no objection to our Fenian organization as I have 
stated it — namely, a manly, upright association, such as it is. lovino- our 
adopted country and its Union, and seeking by every lijeans in our 
power, in consonance with the laws of the United States, to gain the 
freedom of Ireland, but that every pulse of their hearts beats with us. 

Let us have courage then, fellow Fenians: the curtain of carnage 
is rising from many a battle field in the United States, and discloses 
to our eager gaze our own loyal boys carrying the Starry Banner to 
the triumphant cry of our Union everywhere; everv blow struck, every 
victory gained, brings us nearer to the consummation of our hopes; for 
with the feeling of great indignation and desire for retaliation Eng- 
land has engendered universally, here, it must inevitably occur that 
the cry of ''Union'' shall not have died away in its restoration until 
the battle cry oi^'down luith England'' resounds through the land. 

Then comes "England's difficulty and Ireland's opportunity" the 
struggle will be a terrible but a glorious one; it will be not alone Ireland 
and America versus England, but Democracy versus Aristocracy, the 
rights of man versus the rights of Kings. Mf.zeppalike we have been 
driven forth, bound to the emigrant ship, with many a scoft' and shout, 
but like him, we will yet return on our mission of retribution. I 
believe it does not require the spirit of prophecy to see that never 
was there such an oportunity as will come shortly. The struggle 
between the United States and England is as inevitable, as unavoida- 
ble from their relative positions, the antagonism of their Institutions 
and the rivalry of their commerce, as that between Rome and 
Carthage. 

When that struggle comes, Fenians must be ready; — theirs will be 
the glorious mission of fighting the cause of freedom here, freedom in 
Ireland, freedom in other lands. 

The moment that the Stars and Stripes are given to the breeze on 
European soil a shock will be felt, the preliminary of an earthquake 
all over Christendom. 

The debased and enslaved Greek will look up to his Acropolis and 
Parthenon and get a dreaming of their former glory. The descendant 
of the ancient Roman will remember again the days when the legions 
of the grand Republic shook the earth of a subdued world; while 



16 

amidst the Lagunes of the Adriatic thoughts of former republican 
greatness will be experienced in the crumbliiig corridors of St. Mark 
or along the liquid streets of Venice. The cadences of the Marsellaise 
will be heard undulatinfr in waves of song along the valleys and hills 
of France. Chained llurgary will make an effort to break her bonds, 
bleeding Poland receive new vigor in her heroic strui.'g]e, and 
philosophic Germany will arrive at the conclusion that her princes 
great and small, are complete nuisances. Ireland, 'her back turned to 
England, her face to the West," is destined to be our first ouipcst. 
Yes, with the Stars and Stripe and the glorious Sun-burst, we shall 
raise the cry of 1 er liberty which will be echoed and re-echoed from 
her rock bound coast along her hills and valleys. The magic cry will 
ripple along her streams, hover in the shadows of her mountains, pass 
whisperingly over the graves of our murdered kindred and be heard 
amidst the roar of battle in her cities and through her plains — 
'Then onward, the green banner rearing." 

Irishmen in every land \^ill sympathize v\ith us. McMahon of 
France will lejoice, G'Donnel of Spain look on delighted, while from 
the golden sands of California to the crowded cities of the Atlantic 
coast, fram the mountains of Vermont to the bayous of Louisiana, from 
the Canadian provinces, from the workshop, the study and the mine, 
Irish- Americans will enroll themselves under the stars and stripes and 
the glorious sun-burst of Erin. Then while our Yankee privateers- 
men sweep the John Bull commerce from the seas and our monitors 
advise the Britishers in a rather loud aud emphatic manner, we Iiish- 
Americans can find our wav across the seas and strike a blow for 
Erin . 

We shall have many Americans, nohle fellows, friends of liberty, 
with us, for the day of our struggle with the common enemyof Amer- 
ica and Ireland, sees like magic two hundred thousand Irish Fenians 
in the field and two hundred thousand Ameiican Fenians with them. 
With them and joined by the great body of our brothers in the old 
land we shall carve the' words "Robert Emmet" on the nameles^ 
tomb and proclaim that it was done by a nation of freemen, to the 
world. 

To reach this grand consummation we have but to be persevering, 
cautious and determined, we have all the materials for success, soldiers 
trained to the use of war, experienced generals, prudent and co'upetent 
advisers, and, when a unit, immense weight in influencing the action 
of the United States. 

"1 he patient dint and powder shock 
Can blast an empire like a rock," 



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